


Smile Baby

by BloodWolf13



Series: Growing Pains [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Loneliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:14:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24355642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodWolf13/pseuds/BloodWolf13
Summary: An advice given to a child can help them, other times it can hurt them. When stress mounts on Adrien will he hold on to his mother’s advice? Or will he need to accept that sometimes you outgrow certain things.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Emilie Agreste, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Growing Pains [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1758427
Comments: 21
Kudos: 146





	Smile Baby

Adrien Agreste learned to smile because of his mother. Both his real smile and his fake model one. His real one was easy, doesn’t even truly remember ever having to be taught, it was just instinct to smile at his mother. His fake one was another story.

One thing most people don’t know about Adrien is that the first photo shoot he ever did was with his mother. It was a family setting type of thing to showcase his father’s newest collection. He had actually asked to do it with her. His father seemed pleased - he was always happier with his mother around - when Adrien had showed interest.

Yet, his mother frowned when he requested it, and asked him if he was sure. Adrien was a young boy who wanted to mimic his parents, he didn’t have his dad’s talent for drawing, but he did have a beautiful smile, everybody said so. His mother always made him laugh and happy - in Adrien’s young mind - that meant doing photo shoots with her would be easy.

He was wrong. The first ten minutes were a lot of fun, posing for the camera giving his mother a huge smile. Exactly what he believed it was going to be. Then started the costumes changes, the endless reapplying of makeup, having to stand in uncomfortable positions for a good photo…

More and more work he didn’t want to do. Still he didn’t complain, after all he had volunteer for it. Throwing a massive tantrum was more what Chloe did. He kept smiling for his mother, for his father, for the camera. Always smiling.

Until the photographers had announced that he would be doing his solo shoot. There Adrien nearly invoked his inner Chloe to throw a massive tantrum. His mother realizing this had smiled at the man announcing a 20 minute break. He didn’t realize this until years later, but what his mother did was unusual for her. Emilie Agreste was known for never asking for breaks, for working hard, and having an impeccable work ethic.

During the break she picked him up, even with him complaining that he was a big boy and didn’t need to be carried around anymore. His mother kissed his forehead and kept smiling.

“You’re tired baby?”

He didn’t want to admit it out loud so he bits his lip and nod. Adrien’s eyes almost filled with tears, but he remembered that he would have to reapply even more makeup. He tightly shut his eyes to prevent from crying.

“Baby look at me.” It took a second because he was afraid to burst into tears the second he did. “Good boy. I know today has been difficult and you haven’t complain even once, my brave boy.”

He gave her a timid smile. “It’s so hard mama…Can I finish it later?”

His mother smile flatters for a second. “Baby…Adrien. You made a promise to do this, a commitment to this people. They are doing their jobs for you father, we have to do our part or it wouldn’t be fair would it?”

He shakes his head.

His mother smiles bights. “Good. It’s almost over. We’ll stop for ice cream after…okay baby?”

He beams at the promise of ice cream, but a thought passes his mind. “Mama?”

“Yes baby?”

“How can you keep smiling? My face hurts.”

Emilie Agreste laughter is a beautiful melody for her son’s ears. “Well baby…what do you feel when I smile at you?”

“Happy!”He loudly proclaims.

“Exactly and that makes me happy. I smile because the people I love like seeing me smile. I like making the people I love happy, but that’s not all. Sometimes a smile at the right time in the right place can help a person more than you know.” His mother smile had turned a shade melancholic, not that his kid-self could have noticed.

“A smile can mean so much more than you know. It could make someone’s day, be that me, papa or a stranger. You’re a good boy Adrien, you like making people happy and people like you. I’m guessing smiling will come easy for you.”

Adrien nods. “You smile because you’re happy, and you smile to help others.” He felt so proud at being able to understand.

“Yes.” A melancholic smile appears on his mother face. “But here is a little different. You aren’t smiling because you’re happy. You have to smile because it’s your job. You wanted to do this it’s your responsibility to do it. The people that will see these photos need to see a happy boy so that your dad can sell a lot of clothes, and the people who are working here today get a reward for their hard work.”

“Like ice cream.”

His mother laughs again. “Yes, like ice cream. Remember give them a big smile. Smile baby.”

“I will always smile for you, mama.” It would be an easy promise to keep.

Then she disappeared and smiling became harder to do and the fake model smiles would rein on his face. His father became even more distant to the point of being a stranger he lived with. His home became a prison of work and isolation with no mom to help him thought it. Still, he smiled through it.

The first time the trend of only wearing fake smiles wane, was the first day of school, the day he meet his Lady and the day he became Chat Noir. In one single day he gained friends, love and freedom. After so long thirsting for it all, in one single day he had it.

It was a dream comes true. At least for a bit.

His father never stopped grieving. His friends for all they were amazing came with challenges. Lila was one of them. Seeing them getting akumatized one by one, hurt so much, having to fight his friends was hard, pretending he didn’t know them was hard, so many things were harder than he expected.

Ladybug started to keep secrets from him - it hurt more that he could explain - even if in the end she had a good reason not to tell. Master Fu secrets were only his to reveal, but it was unfair to keep him in the dark for so long. It didn’t make up for the negative emotions he had to endure, the lack of trust that Ladybug seemed to have for him, and the fact that she could have pushed more for him to know.

The freedom he loved was wonderful, it was also tiring. Weeks filled with shoots, classes, Chinese class, piano lessons, sports lessons and patrolling were challenging. Yet, he couldn’t go to sleep if he wasn’t truly tired. He actually started to sleep better with Plagg next to him snoring like a tractor and mumbling about cheese. It reminded him that he wasn’t alone anymore.

A few of his problems were still there, but he no longer felt ~~abandon, abused~~ , alone. Of course that was the exact moment the universe decided to screw him, and give him such bad luck that truly only a black cat could have.

A theory about their ages hit the Ladyblog. At first it wasn’t so bad, he had laugh a little - when he got the notification - at the idea of people not noticing them being young. Then morning came and he realized that theory was a massive problem. His friends couldn’t talk about anything else, even Marinette who wasn’t crazy about the heroes had asked Ms. Bustier to have a debate. It ended in tears and Adrien’s absolute certainty that he need to talk with Ladybug about it.

He didn’t even wait for school to end. He snuck into a stall and transformed to send Ladybug a message. Risky and short on time, but he had spent the greater part of the morning panicking about this.

It only calmed down when he talked with Ladybug. She came with battle plans, and ideas to discuss and fix things. He had given his opinions and she had listened. Ladybug told him that they would have to cut down patrol, but to be honest he found that a good thing. For all that he loved the freedom of running around, without pressure, expectations and burdens. He was getting tired from keeping this punishing rhythm.

“AHHH. Akuma.”

Chat Noir and Ladybug sighted.

…

They run towards the scream to look for the akuma and find him pretty quickly.

It was a man wearing a weird purple suit and firing a green gun. Three guesses on what the akumatized object is. The akuma like all good akumas introduces himself as Truth Seeker and proceeds to demand their miraculous.

He snorts. “Can you tell Hawk Moth that he really needs new material? And what type of soldier is a liar…”

Truth Seeker doesn’t appreciate his hilarious humor, and comes after him with the green gun. Unfortunately, the akuma hits a young couple. It helps Chat Noir realize three things. One the akuma was fast, more so than the average. Two, everyone he hits is unable to lie and in danger of pouring every single dark secret they had. Three, the akuma had no sense of humor.

While the young couple confessed their “secrets”, the Press shows up. One good thing that happens when you come from a celebrity family is the training to deal with the media from a young age. An out of control press is nothing new. Adrien has a sad experience of having a paparazzo asking him how he felt about his mother abandoning him. Gorilla had broke the camera and thrown the pap on his ass.

The man had the nerve to try to sue, when his father found out what had happen the man was served with criminal charges for harassing a minor, taking illegal pictures of a minor, and breaking into private propriety. He wasn’t found guilty of the illegal pictures, but the rest was enough for the man to never come close to the Agreste family again. It was one of the few times since his mother died that Adrien felt his dad had protected him.

Still, it’s the first time he has ever seen such a claw-ful cat-titude from the press. A lot of those reporters weren’t paparazzi, but they sure acted like them. It was chaos. The police was getting trampled on, the civilians were going into the fight and getting hit and the press was play a weird ass game of who can get an exclusive by surviving the akuma.

Ladybug tried to reason with the man - it never worked but she always tried - it made him love her more. Then the man decided the best course of action would be to imprison his daughter.

He literally felt a stab at those words. Rationally he knew that the man didn’t mean them, he was akumatized, he couldn’t think straight. But Adrien couldn’t accept that, the little sentence hit too close to an open wound on his heart.

“That cat-titude is a-paw-ling. Keeping your daughter locked up, won’t solve anything. You need to relax or you daughter will just keep doing it…”

Either Truth Seeker didn’t appreciate his puns or decided he didn’t like listening to the truth. His gun came after Chat with a vengeance. He keeps aggravating the akuma after Ladybug asks for cover.

“A police baton? Isn’t that weirdly forwards?” Maybe his lady wants to switch weapons. He didn’t get the chance to ask because she had that look on her face where a plan was brewing on her mind. He starts to draw the akuma attention therefore she has space and time to finish the plan.

He hears an “I got it.” When he looks back he sees a girl running up to Truth Seeker and the akuma aims for her. His Lady saves the girl, but she is left vulnerable. Chat starts running as fast as he can to protect Ladybug, but the akuma is faster. He throws himself in front of her, but the beam already hit her.

For a second his world freezes, a deep sense of panic grabs a hold of his soul and makes it hard to breath. He can get hit, if he gets hit Ladybug can still save the day. Now she can’t, and having the possibility of her being compromised is painful beyond words. For a second he wonders if this is what she feels when he gets hit? An overwhelming panic and a hopeless feeling that gets worse by the second.

When he looks at her, the panic feeling evolves into full on dread. Ladybug looks so scared. So scared, he almost picks her up and runs away from the battle. Akuma be damned.

The akuma reacts faster than him again, by a second and asks. “How old are you?”

“I’m fourteen years old.” Everything around them stops. Chat freezes and feels his blood turn cold. Wait she’s younger than him? What the heck? He always thought they were the same age…wait maybe she hasn’t turn 15 yet.

“FUDGE MY LIFE” Ladybug regains control of her voice, but looks terrified. He has never seen her look this scared and they have faced some horrifying akumas. Akumas that literally had bring their nightmares to life.

He tries to relax her and says. “Purr-fect, I’m only a year older than you bugaboo.” He mentally slaps himself. The press is still here, maybe not the best time to reveal this. Ladybug face confirms that and he momentarily fears that the lucky charm is going to be use on him instead.

Instead his Lady just finishes the battle on the shell-shock akuma, and takes a moment. The reporters aren’t sure what to do at first, but when they start asking questions it’s some of the stupidest things he had heard coming from journalists He can see that Ladybug is both frustrated and scared so he decides to add to what she says. It has always been clear to him, that she doesn’t have experience dealing with press and often leans on him - sadly not literally - to deal with it.

He does something that was taught to him when he was a little boy. He smiles. It’s his job, he lets his lady take the lead on the improve press conference, and adds jokes when it gets too tense. She loses her temper once, but she keeps pretty calm. Adrien has learnt that he is the one that needs to adjust to her reactions when dealing with the press. She doesn’t realize that it would be easy for them to gossip about their relationship if they aren’t in sink.

Adrien is simply better at handling the press. He has been trained since he was little. He can keep a smile on his face even when he feels like running out of there.

‘Smile baby.’ His mother’s voice echoes in his mind.

…

Even with having to reassure the akuma victim and leaving the scene he beats Ladybug to the Eiffel tower. He has a suspicion that she is trying to come up with a solution or calming herself down. He has never see Ladybug look so shaken before.

Adrien drops the smile. Today has been complicated. The tension he felt the entire day has came back. The brief relaxation period he had when talking with his Lady is gone. He feels too tired to be out here, but he doesn’t want to go home. His home is always so empty and he fears that the silence might be too much after today.

He’s afraid that she might cut out patrol to avoid people and scrutiny. It would be the smart option - especially because they already acknowledge the need to cut back on patrolling - but it feels like stealing something that he only gained as Chat Noir. Chat Noir is his freedom, the chance to be himself, say and do outrages things, no expectations other than saving the day and he loves saving people. Being Chat Noir was like drinking fresh water after crossing a desert. It gave him back something he didn’t even realize he had lost - freedom.

Ladybug can’t understand that, for her this is a job. Not a way to be free. He has never explained why it means so much to him, it could reveal too much about his personal identity. Yet, he knows without a shadow of a doubt Ladybug doesn’t realize what being Chat Noir means to him. It means the world - literally.

Adrien doesn’t even know what to say to Ladybug when she gets back. A joke seems wrong, and no words can fix what just happen. He stares at the moon - it has always calmed him out and made him feel better - and waits for Ladybug who arrives minutes later. They just stare at each other for a moment, feeling the weight of the day hitting them at the same time. She doesn’t look good, Ladybug came back looking…defeated, tired and moments away from getting stuck inside her head. He’s afraid of that.

She finally starts to talk and confirms his fear - no patrol. He understands the necessity, but his entire being revolts against the mere suggestion.

“No patrol for the next month? Isn’t that to long?” He asks feeling absolutely miserable. When she says it might be more he knows it’s a bad idea, the public might think they deserted them.

He smiles at her. “Why should we care about the public reaction? I mean they can’t take our miraculous away.” He jokes. “You can’t keep this cat down for long. I am paw-sitive that we could find a way to sneak around, and still patrol.”

She looks at him like he’s an idiot and that hurts a little. When she replies he understands she miss his point…maybe now is not the best time to joke. It’s still too early. There is another pause in their conversation, while Ladybug processes the information.

“What about a compromise? For the next week, we won’t patrol. Take a break from all of this. Next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we patrol for 1 hour, at night.” She ends up coming up with a solution.

“Why those three days?” He is honestly curious.

“There the days in the middle of the week, there’s less movement then. Most people are busy the following days with work or school. Plus, there is not a lot of movement on the streets. Next Thursday - depending on how this goes - we’ll discuss were we stand. I still want to skip the weekend-“That’s good. Marinette’s birthday is on that weekend and he had to do a lot of shoots to be able to attend.”-there will be a lot of people looking for us. In 3 weeks - depending on the situation - we might go back to patrol fulltime. However, I want to keep the previous plan of only patrolling one hour a night.”

He wants to ask to patrol on Friday, since it’s one of his favorite days for patrolling, but thinks that it’s better to wait and see before bring it up. “Ok.”

“We need to lay low for the next few days.” Ladybug stills sounds stress.

“Be more paw-sitive, this will all be fine.” He tries to reassure her.

She looks frustrated and asks him why he revealed his age. Adrien avoids the topic. He doesn’t want to upset her further. That turned out to be the wrong approach. Ladybug ends up shouting the question at him.

It hurt more than he can put into words, when Ladybug screamed at him. At the same time a small part of him was a little relieved, this was familiar, the anger, and the disappointing look. It lasted less than a second and Ladybug looked torn in two at her outburst. It was so different from what his father acted, his father never showed remorse at screaming at him or ignoring him. Ladybug immediately looks down and apologizes.

“No, I get it. The day is getting to you.” He tries to console her, Adrien is so used to people shouting at him. His father when he gets mad; the photographers when they want something; the fencing teacher when he’s not good enough; the fans he sometimes meets; Chloe. So many people scream at him, but they rarely seem sorry.

Maybe they don’t ever think they have anything to be sorry about, because Adrien often smiles after. His mother advice to give a smile is turning out to be more complicated as he grows up.

When he finally tells why he did it, Ladybug hugs him and a part of him heals. Today has been so difficult, and his lady hugging him is helping more than he could ever put into words.

She does something that was unheard of, she apologizes again for screaming. Made sure he knew she was in the wrong. She usually apologized for something she did wrong, but here it was his mistake - he was the one who told his age without being mind controlled - and yet she apologized for losing her cool.

It made him fell…safe. It was ridiculous he couldn’t explain for certain why this tiny action made him feel safe, but it did.

They formed a plan - if you can call it that - and decided to go underground. His freedom lost in once swipe, his love would be too far for him to help her, the only thing that remains was his friends.

They decide to enjoy the night and start talking about random things. Then the most wonderful thing happens - Ladybug puns. Actually puns. A pun. It makes Adrien’s night, and she keeps punning. So many puns. He - of course being the reigning pun champion - must defend his title.

They only stop when people start showing up. They agree to talk with each other and trade information, before heading home. On the way home Adrien realized that while they were talking, he didn’t fake one smile, it was all genuine.

…

“Claws In” Plagg appears and goes straight for the cheese.

Adrien turns on the TV to check out what people are saying. He also opens up the Ladyblog to check the forum.

“I don’t get why humans are suddenly so worry about you and Tikki’s bug.”

Adrien sights. “They assumed we were a lot older, people our age fighting Hawk Moth might not inspire great confidence. Actually why did the people think we were older? What was the ‘magical benefit we gain from it?”

“I don’t know.” Plagg answers with a mouth full of cheese. “Maybe it was to protect your identity. Think about it, a 15 year old blond boy with green eyes. How many could there be in Paris?”

Adrien groans. “I’m going to have to do something to throw the press of my track.”

“What about the super villains?”

“Hawk Moth already saw me and ‘Chat Noir’ in the same place. I don’t think he will suspect me…it would be weird.”

Plagg picks up another piece of cheese. “Don’t worry about the public, the magic will take care of it. This will blow over.”

Adrien frowns. He has thought about it before, the things he can do are amazing and he knows that this power is amazing. Yet today he has started to see another side of it. He has never noticed that Chloe’s appearance changed that much. Sure he could tell that there were some differences - her hair was blonder, she was skinnier - but not that things kept changing.

The magic was obviously affecting more than he thought, and now Plagg’s comment about the magic taking care of things felt weird. Wrong, but not a big deal at the same time. Is that the magic working on him? He had asked questions earlier but Plagg was about as a useful as usual.

“Plagg…I know the magic affects everybody…but how deep does it go?”

Plagg looks at him. “That is really complicated to answer. Depends on many things.”

He frowns. “Can it affect a person’s will?”

“A little bit.”

Adrien becomes alarm at that. “Wait can it control minds? If my identity gets revealed would there be interference?”

Plagg snorts. “If you get your identity revealed to someone you the magic won’t fix it. That person will still know, it doesn’t interfere with free will. If they suspect it, it’s different…it might do things to throw people out of you track. For example, when you transform behind a trash can, if a person is thinking about turning to look at you, it will nudge the person in the opposite direction. But it doesn’t make them do it. They can still turn around and discover your identity.”

Adrien relaxes. “It’s more of a suggestion.”

Plagg just nods. Adrien decides to not push anymore, or he might have to deal with food metaphors.

It still has some terrifying implications, but Adrien is a lot more relax. When he has time he should ask Ladybug what she thinks. He is going to have to ask a lot of things, but he has the feeling that things will be busy for the next few weeks.

…

When morning came Nathalie informed him of a double shoot schedule last minute, meaning he wouldn’t be able to attend classes and see his friends.

It ruins the day, first thing in the morning. Adrien wants to see his friends, see what everybody’s reactions to this are. He’s getting tired of having to do surprise shoots, or having things schedule when he least expected. It doesn’t help that his father has been scheduling more and more things since he started to attended school. A gloomy part of Adrien believes his father wants to overschedule him. Then Adrien would have to admit that homeschooling works best for his schedule.

It’s frustrating, but Adrien refuses to give up the little freedom he has. He keeps this to himself, and doesn’t argue with Nathalie. Instead he just smiles at Nathalie and eats his limited breakfast.

Today it’s going to be a day full of reactions the Mayor is going to release a statement in a little while, but knowing the man it’s going to be filled with meaningless words. Old politician trick, if you are unsure on how to process and the public opinion isn’t decided yet, just make a simple statement early on and wait for the first reactions. Only then ‘form an opinion’.

The police reaction will have to be different. Yet, they will be limited without having a guide line to follow. Underage vigilantism is not accepted in any shape or form under the French law. However Ladybug and Chat Noir can’t go away, with Hawk Moth in the picture. The Mayor allowed them to operate in the city and has giving them rights to do so. If the Mayor doesn’t void that, the police will be truly limited.

Still this doesn’t make this any better. It’s still a huge mess. The press dealing lessons he had when he was young are going to be helpful. Ladybug has gotten better at dealing with the press, but this will test both of them. It’s a make or break kind of deal.

One of his least favorite things to do is dealing with the press. Not all of them are awful, but enough of them are frustrating. For all the frustrations of having to deal with the press on both sides of his life, he understands that Ladybug and Chat Noir are public figures. There is a positive aspect of dealing with the press as Chat Noir, mainly they deal with the more professional side of journalism, instead of paparazzi and magazines.

As such he gets fewer questions about his favorite color and more questions about defeating akumas.

Nathalie walks back into the room. “Simon is waiting in the car for you. The first shoot should only be two hours. You will receive your Chinese and piano homework by then and complete it before 12 am. Then have lunch. From 1pm till 5pm you will be at the second shoot. After you will come home and have the reaming of classes.”

“Thank you Nathalie.”

He wants to bang his head on the table. Until 8 or later he will not have a minute free, and that is not even including the homework that Nino will bring him later on. He’s going to have to see the Mayor’s statement during his first break. He will have to wait until later to talk with Ladybug, and figure out a strategy.

The car ride it’s too short for his tastes, and soon he is the chair with a couple of makeup artists decorating his face. After all this years doing modeling this is still one of the worst parts. The makeup itself wasn’t bad, it was the sitting and reapplying it over and over again, that annoyed him. Same with the change of outfits, there were times he model entire collections and had to change clothes without messing up his makeup.

Another point that annoyed him was no one asked him if he was comfortable anymore. They just ask Adrien to do things for them. It was his job, he need to do his job. Even if didn’t want to do it anymore, even when he wanted to go to school, even if he didn’t get anything for doing this.

He sometimes fantasized about going to his father and putting the foot down. Telling that he was a 15 year old boy, and was tired of endless modeling jobs and special lessons he didn’t ask for it. It was only a fantasy. In reality if he ever dared he would receive a discourteous dismissal at best. He didn’t have the confrontational sprit necessary for such act. He was a more passive person and rarely did he ever see the need to get angry.

It didn’t mean he doesn’t get angry. He does. Sometimes all he can feel is the urge to scream. Scream at the unfair of it all.

Scream at his mother for disappearing. Scream at not knowing what happen to her. Scream at his father for abandoning him when he needed him the most. Scream at the people he worked for always asking more and more. Scream at Ladybug for ignoring her problems and not talking with him. Scream at Plagg for talking in riddles or food metaphors and being so difficult. Scream at the world for being so unfair, but he doesn’t because Adrien is a good boy.

‘Smile baby’

“I am mama, but things are getting so tough.” He thinks.

Things are about to get harder. The theory, the needs of dealing with the public, the problems in his superhero life are going to be tough. Being Chat Noir has always been freeing, but it isn’t easy. The battles, the secrets, trying to figure out who Hawk Moth is after nearly two years is not something he would call easy. Yet being Chat Noir gave him a freedom that he never had. It made it all worth it.

Now that’s over. He wonders if it was naïve of him thinking that aspect could have lasted.

“Adrien?” He looks at a makeup artist. “You’re ready.”

“Thank you.” he replies automatically. Being polite is something that has been ingrain in him from a young age.

He walks into the set and waits for instructions. Some models chit chat with him, a few he knows others he doesn’t. At some point or another all asking him how is father is. They don’t care about him, they only care about Gabriel. He dislikes people like this he doesn’t understand why they can’t just act normal.

He has the fakest smile possible on his face. It’s starting to strain and the photographer hasn’t even started to take pictures.

‘Do you need any help baby?’ His mother’s voice echoes in his head.

No. He didn’t, he just needed to keep on smiling. Eventually the photographer decided where to place them, and they started. He smiled and keeps it throughout the day.

Adrien can’t remember a time when smiling on a photo shoot was as hard as when his mother died. The day after their ages reveal was a close one. He didn’t want to work, he just wanted to go to school and see his friends, even if they would be going berserker at the news. It was an awful day and through it all he smiled. A big smile lighting up the room with the cameras making the smile brighter. He felt like a liar.

His mother once told him that smiling could make a person’s day. He believed her. He still does. What his mother didn’t tell him was how hard it was to do when all he feels is sadness. It’s normal. You don’t tell a young child life is hard. Decisions aren’t always straightforward and sometimes the right choice isn’t going to make you feel any better.

But now that she is gone that’s all he has, advice you give to children. He’s growing up and some of those advices aren’t enough anymore. It hurts so much, every time he realizes that he has outgrown something his mother taught him or gifted him. It feels like his loosing pieces of her little by little. He fights tears for most of the photo shoots wondering why today of all days he had to get so caught up on his mother disappearance.

Maybe it’s because for the first time in a long time his freedom is at stake. Or maybe it’s because he is scared, so scared of how things might turn out, and right now the only thing he wants is a hug from his mother.

He can’t have that. He fights to keep a smile on his face and grabs on to her advice a little longer and just smiles.

‘Smile baby.’

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> In the first FIC of the series, I did tell you (in the comments) I had to cut a piece of Adrien’s POV from chapter 3/4. This is it. It’s not a happy story and it’s a sad reflection on what Adrien’s life might have been like. His mother disappearing must have hurt a lot, and although the show doesn’t go into great details it does appear that Adrien had a great relationship with his mother.  
> Emilie Agreste is a weird character. Everybody describes her as a good person, but she married a man like Gabriel and put on damage miraculous. The show is either building up to a reveal that she wasn’t an angel or she is going to be a good person that got into over her head when thrust into the miraculous world.  
> Fun fact: in this FIC my favorite miraculous character talks.  
> Thank you for reading this. Beware the mistakes and be nice in the comments.  
> Blood Wolf


End file.
